Okay, so I had a friend over and she was creating a dog in the Pets Expansion CAS. But she pressed the delete button in "Coat Colors and Markings" I think and now I can't create pets anymore!!!!!!!!
If I try to make one, nothing shows up, just a blank space. And if I finish creating one, it's invisible and nothing can interact with it and vice versa! How do I fix this?? Please help! (Will using backup files from a couple weeks ago correct the problem? Please help soon!)

What do you mean by making every package file read only? And will reinstalling Pets get rid of pets I have in families in the game? Like will I have to start over with pets for families? I'll try it–thanks!

To make package files readonly: Use Windows "Search" (Start->Search) to find all *.package files in subdirectories of c:\program files\ea games. Drag a rectangle around the entire group. Right click. Pick "Properties" from the menu. In the dialog that comes up, click "Read Only" checkbox, then Ok. Don't do this until you've reinstalled!

No, it shouldn't affect existing pets. Reinstalling should just put back the files that are messed up.

Actually, you'll want to rename your My Document/EA Games/The Sims 2 directory. Then put your Pets CD in the drive if not already there. Now the scary part. Uninstall. Reinstall. Delete the new My Document/EA Games/The Sims 2 directory that the reinstall made. Rename your original directory to the correct name. All should be fixed!

Okay, so I've put off trying to reinstall Pets for a long time now, and now that I've actually tried it, I don't think I can. The whole renaming thing: I don't know how to do that on a mac. Everything's in specific folders, and I don't know what to rename. And I really don't know how to find the files I need to make read only. I know if I try to uninstall and reinstall before renaming the directory, I'm going to mess something up really bad. Can anyone who uses a mac tell me what I should do? Please, I'm really starting to freak out here!

I've never run The Sims 2 on my old Macs, but: Renaming your "The Sims 2" directory will hide everything you have from the game.

The one part of Rose's instructions that I don't understand is starting the install with the Pets CD. I'd think that if you rename the directory, the only thing you can do is a complete new install starting with the original game disk.

Windows comment: If you rename the My Documents/.../The Sims 2 directory, not the one in Program Files, the installer or the game will recreate the data directory for you, and you can start with the new expansion packs. Once you're sure the game is working, you can delete the new data directory and rename your old one so you can play all your old stuff.

It just gives your game a last line of defense against inadvertant corruption of the data files that were copied directly from the CDs, such as the semi-infamous "Mrs. Crumplebottom becomes a vampire" problem.

I know you can make files read-only on a Mac, because I used to do it when I worked tech support for a Mac developer, long ago when dinosaurs roamed the Earth. What I don't remember is how to find all the package files below a certain directory...